Ritual Animal Disguise (1978)

Dressing as an animal is an ancient tradition, condemned as pagan by early Christian writers; it has been recorded in Britain since the fourteenth century, when a man carried a frame, made to represent a horse. Such horses appeared in city parades and court entertainments in the sixteenth century and they visited towns and great households. Some midlands churches collected money with a hobby-horse, to buy candles before the Reformation, and for church repairs after it. Hobby-horse and morris dance became popular in plays in the time of James I, but after 1630 they ceased to appear together. Puritan opinion discouraged plays as well as morris dancing, and hobby-horse records are few from 1630 until 1800.

Since 1800, there are a number of examples of men touring their village with one disguised as an animal. The Hooden Horse in Kent has a wooden head, and the carrier is covered with a sheet. In South Wales the Mari Lwyd was similar, with a horse’s skull. Near Sheffield the Old Horse was of wood, but the Old Tup was sometimes made with a real sheep’s head. In Cheshire a similar horse accompanies the Soulers’ Play.

This book reviews the historical hobby-horse, and the pageants and plays in which they appeared. It indexes the geographical records, describes each one, and seeks to clarify the relationship between them. Some foreign customs are also reviewed. The hobby-horse was associated with the morris only in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, though it was reintroduced in the nineteenth for historical pageants. Recent animals have had different construction, and have appeared either as the central performer, or attached to some other custom.

Condition: Dust-wrapper a little shelf-worn and price-clipped, otherwise very good